Bottle-stopping device



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- G. S; NORRIS.

BOTTLE STOPPING DEVICE. l No. 272,081. Patented Feb. 13,1883.

u PETERS. Pmab-mm hn, Washington. mc.

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE S. NORRIS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

BOTTLE-STOPPING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 272,081, dated February13, 1883.

Application filed December 5,1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, GEORGE S. NORRIS, a citizen of the United States,residing in Baltimore, in the county of Baltimore and State of Maryland,have invented certain new and useful 1m pro vements in Bottle-StoppingDevices, of which the following is a specification. My invention relatesto bottle-stopping devices in which a rubber plug is compressed over andwithin the mouth ofa bottle by means of a combined stopper cap and hailadapted to be connected at one end by means of a link l and a hingedlever to a band secured to the ter of the plug.

neck of said bottle, and the other by means of a branch or extensionprojecting upward from said band; and the objects of my improvement are,first, to provide a rubber plug with a. collar to rest upon the edge ofthe bottle, and a cavity to receive a metallic spring constructed in theform of a transversely-slotted ring, capable of expanding the pluglaterally after being inserted therein; and, second, to

combine with the plug a fastening therefor, madeof a piece ofspring-wire suitably bent to form a skeleton cap for the plug, twoloopsto be connectedwith the neck-band, and an annular spring to be insertedwithin the cavity of the plug to expand its walls and retain it unitedto the stopper-fastenings. I attain these objects by the constructionillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figurelis-aperspectiveview of my improvement applied to the neck of a bottle. Fig.2is a vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of theskeleton or wire cap and its spring. Fig. 4 is a top view of the same,and Fig. 5 isa perspective view of the neck-band. Fig. 6 is a top viewof a ring open on one side andadapted to be used within thestopper-plug.

In said drawings, A represents the neck of a bottle, and B the rubberplug. It is made with a collar, B, to rest upon the edge of thebottle-mouth, and has a hole, b, in its top surface, leading into alarger cavity, 1), in the cen- To connect the plug with thestopper-fastenin gs and furnishitwith an elastic support, to pressagainst the walls of its central cavity, I use a skeleton cap, D, madeof a suitable length of spring-wire, as follows: One end of said wireisfirst coiled around a mandrel until a nearly-complete ring, d, isformed. The longject beyond the edge of the plug-collar before i it isbent upon itself to form a loop, 61 adapted to receive one of the linksused to retain the stopper connected with the bottle. The wire formingthe cap D is then bent in a form nearly resembling a circle to rest uponthe top of the rubberplug within the limits of its surface, but havingits bent-over end 01 projecting over the edge ofsaid surface, as shownin Fig. 4, in which the dotted circle B represents theperiphery of theplug-collar. The endof the wire is then looped around and secured at dto the straight portion (1 thereof, as shown in Figs. 1-. and 2, or tothe portion at, :as shown in Figs.3 and 4, and thus completes theskeleton cap. The extremity of the wire forming the ring 01 is leftunfastened, so that said ring can be contracted by a peripheral pressureand resume its size as soon as the pressure is removed, thus giving tothe rubber plug iuclosing it the support desired to form an air-tightstopper for bottles containing aerated liquids.

With a fastening having a ring, 01, open in this bottleneck be obtained.An independent ring, d, of this form, as shown in Fig. 6that is, with anopentransverse cut in its periphcry-may also be placed within the cavityb, under the tinge? of the cap, to circumferentially sustain internallyand in a yielding manner the walls of said cavity.

To secure the stopper to the bottle the latter is provided with aneck-band, E, made of a piece of wire bent first at c in the middle ofits length, and its branches twisted together adjoining said bentportion, as shown at e,

of the link f and force it from the seat under' and each branch bent ina semicircle to fit the neck of a bottle, and, furthermore, bentoutwardly at e to form a bearing for the link' f, and again bentinwardly to form a journal, 8,

for the locking-lever G. The portions of the wire between the bend e andthejournal e are bent down so as to form an angle of about ten degreeswith and below the plane of the neckband, to insure the transfer of thelower loop of the link f over the cylindrical bearing-surface g of theoperating-lever G; and to further facilitate this transfer the width ofthe loop or length of the journal 6, formed by the extreme ends of thewire, is made somewhat larger than opposite the bends 0 After theneck-band has been placed around the neck of a bottle and the endsthereof have been made to enter the bearing g of the lever G the latteris securely retained thereon at the same time that the neck-band issecured to the bottle-neck by passing a light wire, it, around theneck-band wire at the contracted portion 6 thereof and twisting its endstogether.

To unite the wire cap D to the loop e of the neck-band, the end d ofsaidcap is first passed through said loop before it is sufficiently bentover to clasp the straight portion of said cap between the bends d and01 or the portion d The linkf may be first completed and then passed inthe same manner over the cap-wire; or its upper loop may be left partlyopen and afterward secured to the .loop 61 of said cap. The lower loopof the link f is made of such width as to pass easily over the bent endsof theneck-band. TheoperatingleverGisformed of suitable size wire bentupon itself in the middle of its length, and coiled adjoining to theends thereof to form the cylindrical bearing 9, adapted to receive theends of the wire of the neck-band. The ends 9 of the lever projectinwardly to engage with the lower loop the neck-band when the bottle isto be opened. The slight difference between the form of the skeletonframe or cap D shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and the cap shown in Figs. 3 and 4consists in the bent-over portion d and in the end d of the wire that isfastened on either one of the branches of the loop 61 In Patent No. 257,746, granted to me May 9,

1882, the. apparent configuration of the wire neck-band is nearly thesame as .the band E, above described; but it differs in theseparticulars, that in the former invention the terminal ends of the bandare not within the coil or hearing of the lever Gr, but are on theopposite side of the bottles neck, and consequently there is no wiretie, ash, to retain the ends of the neck-band together, while with thepresent invention the wire It is required to insure the retention of theneck-band'to the bottle.

Having now fully described my invention, I claim- 1'. A bottle-stoppercap consisting of a wire bent in a circular form to rest flatly upon'thestopper-plug, and having its looped portions d d projecting over theedge of said plug, and one end coiled as a ring and adapted to becontracted underlateral pressure, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

2. The combination of the neck of a bottle, its rubber plug providedwith a cavity, 1), a spring-wire ring open on one side and insertedwithin said cavity, and a cap connected with said plug, with aneck-band, links connecting said neck-band with the cap, and anoperatinglever pivoted upon the neck-band, substantially as and for thepurpose described.

3. In a bottle-stopper, the combination of an elastic plug, and aninternal circumferentially-yielding metallic ring provided with atransverse out or unconnected portion in its periphery, substantially asand for the purpose described.

4;. The combination of a wirelocking lever,

Gr, provided with an annular bearing-surface, g, and a neck-band of wirebent in the middle of its length to form a loop, 6 a twisted cableportion, 6, semicircles to embracea'bo'ttleneck, a contracted portion,efland its ends 6, abutting together, with the surrounding wire h,whereby the ends of the neck-band form the journal for the locking-leverto revolve upon, substantially as described G. S. NORRIS.

